With commodities prices surging of late, having a best-in-class platform ready to reap those returns has been a boon to Morgan Stanley and its clients. The pedigree of that platform recently received several honors, taking top ranking from Energy Risk Magazine and Landmark Deal of the Year from the Global MTN Awards, sponsored by mtn-i Magazine.

The results of the recent annual Risk/Energy Risk Ranking Survey, featured in the February issues, saw Morgan Stanley Commodities rank as:

• Top Dealer Overall
• Top Oil Dealer Overall
• Top Electricity Dealer Overall

In the sub-categories, the Firm also had:

• 18 first-place finishes (the most among all the banks)
• 12 second-places finishes
• 12 third-places finishes

In addition, the Firm was commended at the Global MTN Awards, which recognizes contribution to the medium-term note market, taking Landmark Deal of the Year for its series of Baltic Dry Freight Index-linked notes. The notes, tied to the Baltic Exchange's index tracking non-liquid freight shipping rates, offers investors, according to the editors, "a unique variation on the year's bullish plays on China and commodities."

In fact, the editors credited the Firm with "bringing a highly illiquid, volatile and unfamiliar underlying to the structured note format." Given the complexity and innovative nature of the offering, ensuring investors understood the product was paramount.

At the same time, mtn-i gave special mention to the Firm's Morgan Stanley IQ initiative, which it called "a deft move to build a retail-targeted international structured debt platform around its institutional capabilities," and its robust U.S. structured notes business. The editors lauded the Firm for its efforts to "aggregate all of its structuring businesses into one scaleable group that can leverage its institutional expertise."